Well f*ck!

[TickTockBaby]

We received an email from our current energy provider regarding expecting increase in April.

I feel we are potentially completely f*cked! It's so much more then we anticipated.

We were with a company that went bust so we're assigned to Shell.

We are a family of 4 in a 4 bed house. My DH is fantastic at all things energy saving and we've done pretty much them all to the house. We also already do the usual of wearing layers at home once the D.C. are in bed so don't have the heating in into the night.

Just a despairing grumble really, and wondering how we'll find the extra £800 annually. 😩

We have received the same letter via email. Our increase is 900. Over a limited period we have seen a near 3 fold increase in electricity costs.

@bloodywhitecat so sorry to hear about your DH. Have you got heated throws/sheet on your bed and sofa? They cost pennies to run and mean I can wqtch tv/wfh for hours with one wrapped around me without needing the heating on. You can get them fairly cheap and might mean your dh can lie in bed or on the sofa and still be warm for a few hours without the heating on full time?

Ours is increasing by £147 per month.

I received this last night . No idea how I will manage struggling as it is.

Is the standing charge rise an attempt to stop people making themselves I'll by switching everything off?
Making it less likely people scrimp by turning off all the lights and heaters, sitting in the cold and dark, as the unit charge isn't the highest bit of the bill?

It's a reach I know. Just trying to work it out.

Iggly - I think you need to get over the Thatcher thing and consider that no government since has provided the UK with a strategy to safeguard our energy supplies. They've all have plenty of opportunities to do something.

@picklemewalnuts

Is the standing charge rise an attempt to stop people making themselves I'll by switching everything off? Making it less likely people scrimp by turning off all the lights and heaters, sitting in the cold and dark, as the unit charge isn't the highest bit of the bill?

It's a reach I know. Just trying to work it out.

Or you could say they're providing themselves with extra profits even if everyone's consumption drops down to virtually nothing.

Shell too and £800 here as well.

Most upsetting thing is this the cheapest we can find for out electricity and gas (looking at kWh)

It's only a few hundred quid less than my annual pay rise!!

Sorry that was on bad taste. I'm lucky that my payrise (2%) will cover our rising fuel costs of course. I know many, many won't be so fortunate.

@starfishmummy Thank you, I have no idea if we do but I am going to try to find out. That would help enormously.

@thevassal That is a good idea, I will add a couple to today's Amazon order, thank you.

@Bythehairywartsonmywitchychin and @TickTockBabyThank you, I am waiting for a call back from Macmillan benefits support, they helped him claim PIP so hopefully they can help again. I wasn't aware they did grants too.

@loislovesstewie

I actually did a 2-year fixed rate deal with Shell one year ago. I'm now wondering what will happen when that deal ends.

Once your fixed term is up, you'll go onto the higher rate. They put me on a rolling tariff when mine ended 31st January as they said they were not offering fixed tariffs.

From April 1st I'll be on a different rolling tariff with the higher cost. Worst thing is that I've been researching it and this is the best price

@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles

Ours will increase by over £1000 and I worry that the problems that Russia are now creating could impact prices even more as many of our power stations are gas fired and 40% of Europe's gas comes from Russia.

Prices will definitely go up, but very little of our gas actually comes from Russia, most of ours comes from Norway, but supply and demand means prices will go up even more all over Europe.

Apparently one of the problems is that the companies that offered special deals were buying on the market as they needed, which worked when prices were low. The larger companies had bought in the 'forward market' (ie fixed prices years in advance) for what they needed to meet the needs of their customers.

When global prices shot up, the small companies offering good deals couldn't afford to supply their customers, who were transferred to the larger companies, when their suppliers went bust. Those larger companies then had to buy at prices on the day to cover the supplies needed for all the additional customers that were handed to them. So the price went up for everyone.

Global prices are only going to rise as the Russia/Ukraine situation messes up supply. The UK has plenty of high quality gas in the ground, both off and onshore, but we are reluctant to extract it.

Is anyone with another and had news if the increase yet? My monthly bill is very low, but so is my income. I'm so worried.

Shell, is that the same Shell that paid out £6bn in profits to their share holders a few weeks ago?

@PriamFarrl

Shell, is that the same Shell that paid out £6bn in profits to their share holders a few weeks ago?

Do you think that people (actually mostly insitutions like pension companies) would lend money to companies like Shell to use to invest in exploration, improved refining, health and safety for their employees, developing green technologies, etc, if they never got any return on their money?

Except that France forced EDF to cap their price increase at 4%. And they manage.

So somehow… it makes me doubt the whole story of ‘prices are increasing because prices are increasing and we can’t di anything about it’ story line.

Oh, sh*t!

@ImFree2doasiwant

Is anyone with another and had news if the increase yet? My monthly bill is very low, but so is my income. I'm so worried.

Yep different supplier and a £800 increase too.

Sorry, Eon autocorrected to another. Somehow

Anyone with Eon?

@PriamFarrl

Shell, is that the same Shell that paid out £6bn in profits to their share holders a few weeks ago?

That’s right, yes. The same Shell that lost $22 Billion in 2020….

@TravellingFrom

Except that France forced EDF to cap their price increase at 4%. And they manage.

So somehow… it makes me doubt the whole story of ‘prices are increasing because prices are increasing and we can’t di anything about it’ story line.

Which they could do primarily because 70% of Frances electricity is nuclear and not impacted by oil/gas prices. It’s also partly state owned. But, if it wasn’t for nuclear they couldn’t do what they’ve done :)

@ImFree2doasiwant

Is anyone with another and had news if the increase yet? My monthly bill is very low, but so is my income. I'm so worried.

Yes, I'm with Eon and had an email yesterday - going up from £1695 a year to £2672.66!!! Three bed house, four people. I can't believe it, tbh - we only have the heating on for two hours in the morning and one hour in the evening.

So, this means my monthly payment will apparently be £222 - at the beginning of 2020 we were only paying £84 per month and often had hundreds in credit by the end of the summer.
It's a huge increase since then and I'm really dreading what will happen in September with the price cap...

I've spoken with our energy supplier today and ours is going up by around £100 a month. Luckily we will be fine but know lots aren't. It's shocking ☹️

Even taking into account the money of our council tax bill £150 ?? and the 'loan' of £150-£200 - we are still massively out of pocket - gawd help us - and with the Ukraine crisis I suspect we will be paying even more